and as for us not allowing ourselves to contemplate god, that's simply not true. i contemplate things that science can't explain all the time. me being atheist just means that i don't subscribe to a belief in god, it doesn't mean i refuse to contemplate the possibility.

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i hear this commonly and yet atheists don't get very far in a discourse about the nature of god, soul, or form...

they get so far as to say "thats impossible/dumb I'm too smart to have to lower myself to think of such dumb things"

its not like they are very well-read on the subject anyway. thats probably why they cant get very in-depth when trying to speculate on such things. basically the atheist will say "i dont believe in god" and then stop there

i hear this commonly and yet atheists don't get very far in a discourse about the nature of god, soul, or form...

they get so far as to say "thats impossible/dumb I'm too smart to have to lower myself to think of such dumb things"

its not like they are very well-read on the subject anyway. thats probably why they cant get very in-depth when trying to speculate on such things. basically the atheist will say "i dont believe in god" and then stop there

as though thats all there is to it

you might be different but do you not see this also in many atheists?

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i notice a certain arrogance in most atheists that i dislike, i honestly don't spend enough time debating religion or god with them but anytime i do read their debates they usually focus on proving every aspect of religion wrong, which i find annoying..

i will sometimes hold off from religious arguments once someone brings god into the picture because it always turns into a giant pissing contest and nobody ever changes their minds. i try to talk to people i know well who are religious sometimes about god or their beliefs but i admittedly can never really seem to take it all that serious.. i can appreciate a good religious story but i just can't believe that it actually happened without any inclination from outside sources.

for example: my whole fam is religious, and i was just visiting my mom in nc like 2 days ago and she was telling me how the dogwood tree was used to build the cross for the crucifixion of jesus, and at the time it was a sturdy and robust tree but jesus could tell that it objected to it's use in the crucifixion of the son of god. so he blessed it by saying that from now on it wont grow big enough to be put to such use, instead it will be scrawny but beautiful with flowers depicting the cross and red seeds depicting his blood or something like that. and it was a nice story and all but, it just sounds like a fairy tale to me. how am i supposed to know whether this shit actually happened or someone just made it up?

and for the record im no 'proud atheist'... if anything im a closet atheist. if i told my mom i was atheist she'd just get all depressed and tell me she wishes she brought me to church more when i was little. she does that any time i show any lack of religious faith.

i think organized religion is more of a commentary on the human nature than anything. there are interesting concepts to consider though. i think understanding religion lends greatly to understanding human beings and what makes them

but i share your reluctance in regards to the mythos "fairy tales" of religion though

however speculations on the nature of god/immaterial things isn't constricted just to religions. for example there have been numerous philosophers to speculate on the nature of god independently from religion

these works hold more worth i think as they are less about organizing large groups of people and more about trying to deduce rationally the nature of god ie god's characteristics and intents (or lack thereof)

however most atheists have never actually read those works. as such they hinder themselves intellectually.